Campaign to oppose a privatised military academy for St Athan - biggest PFI/PPP ever, with arms dealers Raytheon Serco. John Pilger "a British "School of the Americas" is to be built in Wales, where British soldiers will train killers from all corners of the American empire in the name of "global security". Tony Benn “The thought of privatising the training for the Armed forces was morally abominable”

23/10/2007

Privatisation of Qinetiq audit office missing report

Privatisation of qinetiq - audit office missing reportRadio silence from the NAOThe National Audit Office has not been short of publicity with revelations that MPs have ordered a review of how it is run after it emerged that the man in charge of the public spending watchdog had spent almost £350,000 on foreign trips in just three years. The Public Accounts Committee said last week its inquiry would focus particularly on the role of Sir John Bourn, the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Among other things, the study will look at whether the NAO should be overseen by a separate advisory board staffed with new non-executives. Now it seems that the PAC is also taking an interest in a piece of unfinished business: the NAO's report into the privatisation of Qinetiq, the Government's defence research group.Launched in January 2006, there are still no signs of the report despite drafts having been in circulation since March. It was initially expected to be published by the end of last year and more recently this summer. So far, there has been nothing but radio silence. Now it appears that the NAO is coming under pressure from the PAC to release its report. Two civil servants have been summoned to appear in front of the PAC in December.

The inquiry is looking at whether the Government short-changed taxpayers over Qinetiq. Its privatisation was controversial from the start, ever since the Government first sold a stake in the business to Carlyle, the US private equity group. A draft of the NAO's report, details of which were obtained by this paper in March, criticised the Ministry of Defence, accusing it of allowing the management to reap "excessive" rewards.It was all strong stuff, which is why it makes it easy to suspect that ministers are trying to have some of the more juicy parts taken out. The longer this saga continues, the more likely it is that when taxpayers finally get to read the report it will make far less interesting reading than the draft.

In Planet magazine there is an email exchange between Stephen Thomas (Director of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs) and Sara Koopman, an academic who is an activist with the School of the Americas Watch, they exchange their experiences of campaigning against St Athan and School of the Amer...icas.

Ministers have quietly offered contractors bigger state guarantees as a means of rescuing the £12bn ($17bn) private finance project to centralise the military’s training, the Financial Times has learnt.

Britain's armed forces is in danger of collapsing as a result of the credit crunch.herePlaid chief opposes St Athan Academy 6-Sep-08 hereWales must not be a cog in the war machine - Daily Post..here‘St Athan jobs dwindle while the costs rise’ here

Meet the mystery defense contractors that are raking in billions in taxpayer dollars without notice. Read more »"We recommend that people throughout the world launch nonviolent actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war” - 7th Recommendation of the World Tribunal on Iraq, June 2005; http://www.worldtribunal.org/

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What are the 'benefits' to the MOD of transferring risk to the private sector?

Derek Twigg MP, Under Secretary of State for Defence, talks to PSCA International's Matthew D'Arcy about what lies ahead in bringing a new flexible approach to learning through the Defence Training Review. “Partnership with the private sector does give us flexibility, and this is the key point here, to decrease or increase student throughput. The partner will be able to generate third party income from spare capacity and also dispose of surplus capacity. It also allows for a very important part of the role for industry to bring private sector management expertise and the ability to include significant capital investment at this stage. It is really about delivering a modern and flexible learning environment that will be fit for our service personnel of the future.”Facilities key to defence trainingThe PPP Journal Issue 56 - Thursday, April 12, 2007

Ending Contractor Impunity see hereThe Center for Public Integrity, The Windfalls of War.Global Policy Forum. “State Sovereignty and Private Security Companies” webpage with documents, analyses, articles and links. Available hereHuman Rights Watch, Private Military Contractors and the Law. See hereInternational Committee of the Red Cross, Privatisation of War section. See herePrivate Military Companies. See hereWar on Want, Getting Away with Murder. See hereSourcewatch. See here

AMs on St Athan

Cluster Bombs and Raytheon

News: Officials: Hundreds of Iraqis Killed By Faulty Grenades ..failure rates as high as 40 percent. Hundreds and possibly thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed or maimed by outdated, defective U.S. cluster weapons that lack a safety feature other countries have added, according to observers, news reports and officials……… Britain, which joined the USA in the fight to oust Saddam Hussein, fired 2,000 artillery cluster weapons in the war. All were equipped with Israeli-made grenades with secondary fuses and a 2 percent dud rate, the British Defense Ministry said…….."The funding for R and D [research and development] in the Army was minimal, and fusing was the last on the list," said Bruce Mueller, a former Army lieutenant colonel who managed the fuse program for defense contractor Raytheon. "They develop weapons, then they develop munitions, and after they develop munitions, the last thing they worry about is how to fuse them."

Raytheon. The company makes the guidance systems for many of the missiles that are sold to Israel and that caused so much civilian death in the conflict, including the 51 people crushed to death in a bunker in Qana.

Download Corporate Mercenaries [pdf]: War on Want's report on PMSCs - Private Military and Security Companies - Corporate Mercenaries: The threat of private military and security companies…..Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are major arms contractors also selling PMSC services.

Dozens of Iraqi dead after cluster bomb attack in Hilla Amnesty International has condemned the Hilla bombing and the US use of clusterbombs, saying that the use of cluster bombs against a civilian area of Hilla...www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/040403_dozens_of_iraqi_dead_after_clust.htm - 14k -

The use of cluster bombs Human Rights Watch "U.S. Use of Clusters in Baghdad Condemned" 16 April 2003) The cluster bombs that were used in Hilla were identified by Landmine Action, ...www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3463.htm - 31k -